Diogenes:Earguy: One could argue that it is a statement of how stupid the "trapper" is. Poking fun at the redneck.

Naw, that's racist.

That sort of humor is very had to pull off. Double edged sword - you can't control how or why people will laugh. For every person who laughed at Archie Bunker because he was a caricature of a racist, there was a person who laughed because they agreed with him.

Yeah, Warren Mitchell (who played Alf Garnet, the UK version of Archie Bunker) used to regularly get people coming up to him in the street congratulating him on still being the one person on TV to "tell it like it is".

RedTank:Once again. All racists are republicans but not all republicans are racists.

Sadly, this isn't true. One of the reasons why Hillary Clinton did better than Obama in places like West Virginia is that there were a significant number of racist Democrats who were unwilling to vote for a black candidate. Chuck Todd, I think, had some horrifying footage of some of these folks that I saw at the time. Watching it made me embarrassed to be human.

Rev.K:timujin: Are you stupid or just trolling? It's not racist? Then perhaps the Republican Party folks would have said something to that effect, "Nothing to see here, move along" instead of "hey, that's racist and we don't condone it".

HURR most people are critical of Obama's policies don't like him because he's steering this country in the wrong direction just to raise yer taxes not because he's black hurrr we should have voter ID laws.

whidbey:HURR most people are critical of Obama's policies don't like him because he's steering this country in the wrong direction just to raise yer taxes not because he's black hurrr we should have voter ID laws.

I didn't know watermelon and fried chicken were a stereotype until someone mentioned it in college. My reaction was similar, I thought watermelon and fried chicken just sounded like a great summer meal for anyone who could find a good watermelon and had a halfway decent fried chicken recipe. I had to ask someone and this was roughly the response:

"Fried chicken and watermelon were considered cheap/throwaway foodstuffs at one point in the South, something black people reveled in when they could get it but generally disdained by the aristocratic southerners." Frankly, I still don't get it, a good fried chicken recipe is treated around here like a good ribs recipe is in other places and the ability to pick the best watermelon is a learned skill if not an innate talent, and a respected one. But I'm from Indiana, which has deeply racist roots, and almost no black people outside the cities so it gets weird regarding perceptions.

I had the same reaction as Forest Gump did when someone said "coon," the movie was the first time I heard the term used to refer anything other than raccoons. Same with "Spook" in the movie Sneakers, my thought was "how did they know he was in the CIA (which the character was and I knew was a reference to CIA operatives)? And why does that piss him off so much?"

In other words, I don't get this. Can someone else explain it to me? Is watermelon still so downtrodden?

I didn't know watermelon and fried chicken were a stereotype until someone mentioned it in college. My reaction was similar, I thought watermelon and fried chicken just sounded like a great summer meal for anyone who could find a good watermelon and had a halfway decent fried chicken recipe. I had to ask someone and this was roughly the response:

"Fried chicken and watermelon were considered cheap/throwaway foodstuffs at one point in the South, something black people reveled in when they could get it but generally disdained by the aristocratic southerners." Frankly, I still don't get it, a good fried chicken recipe is treated around here like a good ribs recipe is in other places and the ability to pick the best watermelon is a learned skill if not an innate talent, and a respected one. But I'm from Indiana, which has deeply racist roots, and almost no black people outside the cities so it gets weird regarding perceptions.

I had the same reaction as Forest Gump did when someone said "coon," the movie was the first time I heard the term used to refer anything other than raccoons. Same with "Spook" in the movie Sneakers, my thought was "how did they know he was in the CIA (which the character was and I knew was a reference to CIA operatives)? And why does that piss him off so much?"

In other words, I don't get this. Can someone else explain it to me? Is watermelon still so downtrodden?

KhamanV:what_now: I understand that this is racist, but I don't know the etymology of the slur? I personally love watermelon, and I'm whiter than Colombian bam bam.

And oh yeah- this is why people hate you, GOP.

I went into this on reddit earlier, so I'll repeat myself now.

It comes from a deliberate effort to portray black people as simple and easy to please; a low-maintenance sort of housepet. It was used to justify slavery - give them a watermelon and look how happy they are!It's actually very insidious imagery.

This article covers the themes in the imagery in a visual manner. This linked articlegoes further in depth into the stereotype.

This was informative. Thanks.

/white person who had an *idea* why it was offensive, but who was never really quite clear on it//also making a mental note to include a variety of garden fruits and veggies to offer the African-American neighbors from the garden *with* the watermelon we're gonna grow to minimize possible awkwardness///the watermelon was fan-f--king-tastic the last two years, gotta share the awesome

I have no idea what it is here, but I'd figure California would have the cheaper pineapple prices in the contiguous 48. Location and all. (Shrug).

/my Mom burned her mouth from eating too much pineapple on their honeymoon trip to Hawaii//I think she just told that story every damn time she bought us pineapple so my brother and I wouldn't destroy it on our own, but come on, Mom///pointless post is pointless